The development of Wynyard on Teesside took a dramatic twist today as it emerged that multi-millionaire Sir John Hall has sold his 500-acre business park to the owners of a rival site.

Wynyard Limited, the company behind the redevelopment of the 200-acre former Samsung site - now known as Wynyard One - confirmed it had led a consortium to buy the neighbouring land.

The deal, worth "tens of millions", will see the sites merged to cover 700 acres with the potential to create thousands of jobs on one of the largest business parks in the North-east.

The sale follows a high-profile row between Sir John and Wynyard Limited managing director Chris Musgrave.

The Evening Gazette revealed last week that Sir John's company Cameron Hall Developments had dropped a judicial review application over Stockton Council's decision to relax planning restrictions over the Wynyard One

development. Mr Musgrave today described the land deal as the best result for both sites, which will be rebranded under a new as-yet undecided name.

"I have been trying to breathe life into the Wynyard One site for more than a year and have people queuing up to bring jobs and investment here," he said.

"We are now in a position to push ahead with plans to bring a huge amount of private investment to the Tees Valley."

Helios Properties and Kilmartin Property Group make up the consortium with Wynyard Limited.

The acquisition is the latest move in the development of Wynyard since Samsung closed its microwave and PC monitor plant last year with the loss of 425 jobs.

Following closure it emerged the site had been sold to Hartlepool-born businessman Chris Musgrave, who announced #35m plans to transform the site into a business park with office units, a distribution centre and workshops with local firms also relocating to the site.

The total planned investment in the site has since increased to more than #70m.

Sir John was out of the country and unavailable for comment today and a spokesman for Cameron Hall declined to comment on the deal.

He played a major role both in bringing Samsung to the region and the development of the executive housing estate at Wynyard.

His #500m plans for Wynyard Business Park, which included proposals for hotel and leisure facilities alongside business units, have been slow to develop although a second office building on the site was completed last month.

It is unclear whether the land sale ends his involvement in Wynyard although Cameron Hall remains based at Wynyard Hall.